Creating a cultural shift around voting with VICELAND and CAA

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Year:

2018

Project Intro

The US Midterm elections in 2010 and 2014 saw declining voter turnout rates, with 2014 being the lowest voter turnout since World War II. It was also the lowest youth voter turnout in 40 years. To fix this growing problem, we needed a movement to create a cultural shift around voting and civic engagement, where there is a common expectation of voter participation. Research shows having a "voter" identity (i.e. "I am a voter instead of "I vote") is an important predictor of voter turnout and more likely to establish a movement. Purpose partnered with CAA, VICE, and the other partners of the nonpartisan movement to create the website and support the campaign. The website worked as a hub to make voter identity mainstream and inspirational to a wide and inclusive audience.

The website directed the user to the most important actions. Most importantly, to register to vote. We also had a mechanism for reminding people of the upcoming elections, and of local elections going forward.

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Another important piece was shareable, instagram-focused social content and templates, which we made easily available on the site and seeded through influencers. The campaign garnered overwhelming support from several big name celebrities, such as Khloe Kardashian, Jessica Alba, Anne Hathaway, Mark Hamill, Joey King, Emmy Rossum and Steph Curry to name but a few, who posted the campaign content to their instagram stories or feed or both.

The Outcome

In the end, the campaign engaged received over 70 million digital impressions from digital banners, received over 1,422,367,600 + social media impressions and garnered subscribers to the SMS platform in every state. In a small way, we were able to contribute to a historic Midterm Election: Voter turnout was the highest in 48 years, with an estimated 116 million Americans voting and the first midterm election to top 100 million votes.

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Congress now has the greatest race, gender and class diversity in history. A record 42 women and 24 people of color joined the freshman class, including the youngest woman, the first Muslim women, and the first Native American women ever elected to Congress. Additionally, 47%—or roughly 14 million—18 to 24-year-olds heard about the 2018 elections from at least one of the four most commonly used social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter.